Motors typically include a stationary portion and a revolvable portion. The revolvable portion may carry a set of magnets, which when in interaction with a set of stator windings carried on the stationary portion, generates forces that causes the revolvable portion to rotate relative to the stationary portion.
In tandem with the miniaturization of portable consumer electronic products, there is a need for small motors with low power consumption. One difficulty with a small motor is that attractive forces between the magnets and certain non-moving parts of the motor (or parts of an assembly including the motor) may present undesirable resistance to the rotation of the revolvable portion. Thus, the motor may require more power to start up. Making the motor bigger may not be a desirable solution because that may result in a larger consumer electronic product, or even higher power consumption to move the larger motor parts.
There is therefore a need for motors are small enough for use in increasingly smaller consumer electronic products, and yet require less power to operate.